International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 89

International Journal on Criminology
The fact that all Mafias privilege investments in critical sectors of our consumerist
and urban societies such as construction, waste management, entertainment,
and sports industries or funeral services, is no coincidence. Mafias’ are perennial
institutions which look for the most profitable licit and illicit long-term
investments, based on their understanding of the core forces driving our societies,
including taboos. This, for instance, is the case with Triads’ involvement in wildlife
trafficking in Asia, South America, and Africa, which fuels Chinese traditional
medicine (UNODC 2010). Hence, Mafias investments are strategically decided
following the four criteria (Gayraud 2014). First their profitability, second their
intensity in human capital (allowing Mafia to offer jobs and remunerations to their
constituents), the quality of the fiscal and social coverage provided and its criticality
in terms of political leverage. Here are three examples of Mafias’ strategic
investments and economic power:
• In the 1980s, and probably to date, Cosa Nostra Families were levying a 2% tax
on every construction project in New York (Kelly 1999). The five families willingly
chose to invest in this highly profitable sector, as through the control of
the teamsters’ and mason’ unions, they could provide jobs to 100,000 workers
and dispose of an effective political weapon.
• Renowned expert Alain Rodier estimated in a 2013 study that Triads $200
billion annual profits, 40% of the Chinese GDP, were massively reinvested in
the Chinese legal economy. Sun Yee On and the Triad 14K have allegedly been
among the largest investors in Shenzhen “special economic zone” as well as in
construction sites of the 2010 Shanghai universal exhibition (Pons 1992). Interestingly,
Rodier notes that the Chinese governments favorably consider every
“energy contributing to the economic uprising of the country” (Pons 1992, 2).
• In 2004, the Italian national anti-mafia prosecutor Lucio Di Pietro revealed
during a press conference that the two Agrofood multinationals Parmalat and
Cirio had made an agreement with the Camorra. Against remuneration, the
Neapolitan Mafia was imposing these two companies’ products in all Southern
Italian regions, especially around Naples (Gayraud 2011).
4.1.2. White Gold
In their competition for power with Nation-States, Mafias hold a significant trump
in their sleeves. In the international economy, Mafias benefit from an incredible
asset: illicit activities currently generate more revenues than any legal business in
the world providing Mafias with incomparable capital reserves. Hence, cocaine or
“white gold” is currently the most profitable trade on earth before oil or minerals.
Cocaine is a refuge investment, an anti-cyclical value which allows primitive
accumulation of capital. It cannot be affected by resource depletion nor by a
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